bug#12370: 24.2.50; Unconditionally inhibit startup echo area message

bug#12370: 24.2.50; Unconditionally inhibit startup echo area message

[Christopher Schmidt]

severity: wishlist

inhibit-startup-echo-area-message is a weird variable.

    inhibit-startup-echo-area-message is a variable defined in
    `startup.el'.

    Documentation: Non-nil inhibits the initial startup echo area
    message.  Setting this variable takes effect only if you do it with
    the customization buffer or if your `.emacs' file contains a line of
    this form: (setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message "YOUR-USER-NAME")
    [...]
    Thus, someone else using a copy of your `.emacs' file will see the
    startup message unless he personally acts to inhibit it.

IMO there should be another possible value option for
inhibit-startup-echo-area-message - a non-nil, non-string value
unconditionally inhibits the startup echo are message.

Is this a reasonable request?  If so, I'd love to prepare a patch.

        Christopher

bug#12370: 24.2.50; Unconditionally inhibit startup echo area message

[Andreas Schwab]

Christopher Schmidt <christopher@ch.ristopher.com> writes:

> inhibit-startup-echo-area-message is a weird variable.

This is by design.

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

bug#12370: 24.2.50; Unconditionally inhibit startup echo area message

[Stefan Monnier]

> IMO there should be another possible value option for
> inhibit-startup-echo-area-message - a non-nil, non-string value
> unconditionally inhibits the startup echo are message.

Why?


        Stefan


PS: The main reason for the strangeness is that we want to make sure
that the startup message is not disabled site-wide, which would prevent
a new user from seeing it.

bug#12370: 24.2.50; Unconditionally inhibit startup echo area message

[Christopher Schmidt]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
>> IMO there should be another possible value option for
>> inhibit-startup-echo-area-message - a non-nil, non-string value
>> unconditionally inhibits the startup echo are message.
>
> Why?

I would like to unconditionally remove the startup echo area message
because I do not like noise and repetition.

ATM I use this form:

    (defadvice display-startup-echo-area-message (around my-disable activate))

I do not like advising undocumented, internal functions.

Off topic:

I don't want to use inhibit-startup-echo-area-message via setq in my
init.el because my init.el is just a bootstrapping stub that loads my
real configuration files.  This indirection is necessary for my
autocompile implementation and initialisation structurization.  Forms
like (setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message ...)  do not belong in my
user-init-file.

I share the same Emacs configuration between multiple machines and user
accounts.  When setting up a new environment, I would like to clone my
configuration repository, symlink the dir to ~/.emacs.d and get started.
Remembering to add a setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message form
violates my zeroconf policy and screws with my vc.

I would like to keep my emacs configuration independent of the user name
I am using.  I think the two are should have no influence on each other.

> PS: The main reason for the strangeness is that we want to make sure
> that the startup message is not disabled site-wide, which would
> prevent a new user from seeing it.

I am not arguing in favour of removing that strangeness.  It just does
not work for me.  This is why I am proposing to add another value
option.  I think my use case is not that much out of the ordinary.

Stefan, incase I share my emacs configuration I will personally make
sure that the other side knows about the -q switch and C-h C-a.  Not
that this will help much, but I will do that...

        Christopher